U.s. On Libya Alert: Reagan

April 10, 1986|By George de Lama and James O`Shea, Chicago Tribune.

WASHINGTON — President Reagan, branding Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy as ``the mad dog of the Middle East,`` vowed Wednesday that the United States would retaliate against the Arab strongman for his terrorist war against Americans.

In a nationally televised news conference, Reagan refused to confirm whether he had approved contingency plans for a military strike against Libya, but he disclosed that authorities are ``on alert and on guard`` for possible terrorist reprisals on American soil.

``We have to deal with this terrorist problem. We cannot allow terrorists to believe they can do this to the world,`` Reagan told reporters in the East Room of the White House. ``If somebody does this and gets away with it and nothing happens to them, that encourages them to try even harder and do more.``

Reagan`s remarks capped a day of growing speculation that the administration was planning a new military confrontation with Khadafy. The Pentagon announced that two of the three aircraft carriers that participated in the recent skirmish with Libyan forces in the Gulf of Sidra had their sailing orders changed and would remain in the Mediterranean indefinitely.

Pentagon officials refused to discuss possible operations against Khadafy`s regime, but one well-placed source confirmed that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had met several times over the last week to consider military options.

On another pressing foreign policy matter, Reagan said a June summit meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ``is just about out now`` but expressed hope that the meeting could be held in July.

The President said that if the Soviets hold out for a later date, he would demand that the summit be held after congressional elections in early November.

Although Reagan opened his news conference with statements on the federal budget and aid to Nicaraguan contras, the questioning focused on Libyan-sponsored terrorism.

When asked whether the U.S. was engaged in an undeclared war with Khadafy, Reagan said: ``Not on his side--he`s declared it. We just haven`t recognized the declaration yet, nor will we. . . . We`re going to defend ourselves, and we`re certainly going to take action in the face of specific terrorist threats.``

Reagan stopped short of directly linking Khadafy to last week`s bombings of a TWA jetliner and a West Berlin nightclub packed with U.S. servicemen, saying the U.S. was still investigating the attacks.

But in his news conference and in an earlier session with newspaper editors, the President served notice that the U.S. planned to move against Khadafy, once his link to the bombings was firmly established.

``We`re not just going to sit here and hold still,`` Reagan told a luncheon of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. ``We in our country, plus our friends and allies throughout the free world, have got to set down standards and make it plain that there will be retaliation and that terrorism cannot succeed.``

Vowing to collect solid evidence that would enable the U.S. ``to point a finger at who is responsible`` for the attacks, Reagan said Khadafy is

``definitely a suspect.``

During the news conference, the President said a military strike against Khadafy would be proportionate to the evidence of his involvement in terrorism.

Expressing what his aides have described as a visceral contempt for Khadafy, Reagan twice made disparaging remarks about the Libyan leader.

``We know this mad dog of the Middle East has a goal of a world revolution, Muslim fundamentalist revolution, which is targeted on many of his own Arab compatriots,`` Reagan said. Vice President George Bush had described Khadafy as a ``mad dog`` earlier in the day in speaking to sailors aboard the USS Enterprise in the Middle East.

Asked about former President Jimmy Carter`s criticism that U.S. policy toward Khadafy should not be to ``poke a polecat,`` Reagan said, in part:

``Everyone`s entitled to call him whatever animal they want, but I think he`s more than a bad smell.``

Reagan refused to discuss plans for a military strike against Khadafy, but speculation that a military operation was being prepared was fueled by the Pentagon`s announcement of a change in the orders for key U.S. warships.

``The USS Coral Sea battle group, which was scheduled to end its routine deployment in the Mediterranean shortly, has been extended for an indefinite period to maintain the existing naval presence in the Mediterranean,`` the Pentagon said Wednesday.

Pentagon sources said the Coral Sea, which was in port in Spain, would bolster a force that included the America, another carrier whose tour in the Mediterranean was extended indefinitely. The carriers and their support ships would give the U.S. about 21 warships in the area.

A third carrier, the Enterprise, was in the Gulf of Oman, south of Iran. The Saratoga, another carrier that participated in last month`s exchange of fire with Libyan forces in the Gulf of Sidra, was reported returning to the U.S.